Gregoire: McGinn ‘demeaned the office of the mayor’

Gov. Chris Gegoire said Friday she hasn’t spoken to Mayor Mike McGinn in nearly two months and that when she needs to discuss Seattle issues, she contacts City Council President Richard Conlin.

The governor said she’d had no contact with McGinn since he said in late October that he didn’t think Seattle could trust Olympia or Gregoire when it came to the Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel replacement.

Gregoire

“It’s too bad that he demeaned the office of the mayor. I don’t think that’s mayoral. This isn’t personal with me. I respect anybody who disagrees with the tunnel. I can understand, and I can respect it, but you don’t personalize it. And those of us in elected office don’t personalize. I will not lower the office of the governor and personalize anything like that,” Gregoire told seattlepi.com. The governor met with seattlepi.com staffers to discuss her budget, but was asked about her relationship with McGinn.

“I don’t have any more meetings scheduled,” she said, adding that she now speaks to Conlin. “How do you work with someone who said they can’t trust you?”

In an Oct. 31 meeting with reporters, McGinn, a vocal opponent of the $4.2 billion tunnel replacement program, said he believed state officials have already given away more than half the cost overrun cushion for the tunnel, and Seattle shouldn’t count on Olympia to protect it from being stuck with an unexpected bill.

“I just don’t think we can trust the politicians in Olympia to protect us from cost overruns,” McGinn said at the time. “I don’t believe we can trust the governor.”

He has since walked that statement back abit, acknowledging he could be more diplomatic. “I’m not the best politician and I’ll admit that. And I’m not just trying to be ‘aw-shucks’ here. I’m learning a new job. I’ve got to figure out how to say the right thing and … I’ll work harder at doing it better,” McGinn said during a tunnel forum sponsored by The Stranger in early December. “But can’t we just talk about the topic once in a while and how we’re going to pay for it?”

McGinn objects to a clause in state law that says Seattle must pay the costs if the tunnel project busts its budget, though tunnel supporters say the law is unenforceable. Some state lawmakers, however, have said they plan to make sure the city pays any cost overruns. Earlier this month the state announced the tentative winner in the contest to build the 1.7-mile tunnel. Construction is expected to begin next year.

Gregoire said there are many issues she’ll work on for Seattle.

“We have homeless in Seattle, which is a big issue for me and for (McGinn). We’ve got public safety issues. We’ve got economic development issues. In my last conversation, I spoke with him about all these issues.”

But for the time being anyway, it doesn’t sound like Gregoire will be having any more conversations with Seattle’s mayor.